Joe Matzzie Beyond Belief

BIOGRAPHY

New York based outfit, Joe Matzzie Beyond Belief, represents that rare project that incorporates Rock, World, Jazz, and Rhythm into honest, melodic pop. Beyond Belief's current mini-CD, "The First 20 Minutes", has been heard on over 35 college radio stations in the northeast. Creative mastermind and mad genius behind the band, Joe Matzzie, formed Beyond Belief as an outlet for his own musical frustration and creative inspiration.Beyond Belief's extravaganza of sound and melody takes the listener right into the beat of the city that is the Melting Pot of America. While walking near New York's 4th Street and Broadway, Matzzie was taken in by the crowds of people and the general chaos of Manhattan life. "I was looking around, and just watching the masses of people," Matzzie recalls. "I thought, God! This is Beyond Belief"! Beyond Belief debuted at New York's CB's Gallery in February of 1996. The concept of city living, the challenge of survival, not only gave the band its name but also became the background noise for "The First 20 Minutes".

While comparisons to Ska are inevitable due to the horns, Beyond Belief represents a different approach. Matzzie has been writing and arranging music since his early days in music school. "I was surrounded by musicians and just started writing for them," Matzzie recalls. " I wrote the song Way Home. Originally it was four horns; trombone, two trumpets, and an alto sax. It was recorded on a four track, and that was the first arrangement I wrote for horns. When I write a song, I'm not thinking about rules, or trying to follow them. It's the energy.

The First 20 Minutes features six original songs that convey this emotion, hard driven, soft spoken, tender and furious, the songs stand out with a definitive style that loses nothing for all of the mayhem. Like the city that never sleeps, Beyond Belief makes it work. That, and as bassist Lee Butterfield describes it, "Joe's on tenacious motherfucker."

In the fall 2000, singer/songwriter Joe Matzzie and his band of musical misfits created the album It's All True. The album is a collection of conspiracy theories, urban legends, and parables about the constant desire for the definitive. The title "It's All True", is as much a reference to the fantastical stories of alligators, love-lorn Celtic Gods and old men living in lighthouses; which Matzzie weaves into the lyrics, as it is a reference to the music style itself, and it's diverse nature. It's all valid, it's all for real, and it's all fair game for Joe Matzzie Beyond Belief. Featured tunes include Alligator, a favorite at the band's live shows, and The Song of The Wandering Aengus, which is based on a poem by W.B.Yeats. It's a Concept album," states Matzzie. "It's All True sums up what Beyond Belief is about. It's a mix of true stories and completely fabricated lies, but it represents the everything we're part of, blending influences into what's natural for the song at hand."

With no place to pull over safely, Joe Matzzie Beyond Belief has arrived.

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